Food is for sharing
by New Neon
Summary: Sanji gets a second chance to make the future one that he wants. Oneshot ZoSan


Sanji sat staring wide-eyed at the castle before him, or rather, what remained of the castle. The Straw-hat crew had chased a few powerful pirates into there and in the course of the fighting the other pirates had destroyed the castle and fled. As the building had come crashing down around them something incredibly unexpected had happened, or rather, someone incredibly unexpected had appeared.

They had appeared all around the castle just as is was falling to the ground and had managed to rescue all of the Straw-hats that needed to be rescued and dragged them all outside. From what they'd briefly established so far from the other-Franky's brief explanation was that they'd come back in time to get here to stop the collapsing castle being the end of the Straw-hat crew. Their other selves were considerably older, by five or ten years if Sanji had to guess.

The other-Franky looked perhaps slightly older, it was hard to tell as Franky didn't look his age or even distinctly normal at the best of times. But this other-Franky looked older on the inside, he looked weary and it wasn't just from the effort of pulling Robin and Chopper from the fire. He had an old nasty looking scar across his face, a long gash ran across his cheekbone and dived into where his hair should have been, instead now there was a slash along the side of his head that was devoid of his usual blue hair giving the rest of his hairline a rather jagged edge to it.

The other-Usopp was still lying on the ground panting from the exertion of dragging Luffy out of the collapsing building, their Captain had been knocked out cold by a sudden and unexpected blow to the head from a falling lump of castle. Usopp didn't look too much different apart from the strangeness of seeing a beard on the apparently not so young man's face. Sanji had always thought of Usopp as much younger than himself, both age and maturity wise, but it was clear that this Usopp was indeed older than he was. He seemed to have broadened out a bit too, he wasn't so much the skinny kid that Sanji knew now, he looked more like a man.

But by far the most disturbing for him was the other-Sanji who was crouched with his head in his hands next to him. He'd barely said a word as they escaped the castle and now he was just sat on his haunches panting as if out of breath and burying his face in his hands. He was wearing a large, loose and slightly shabby trench coat which Sanji thought was kind of ugly and his gloved hands were tangled in his dull overgrown hair.

Before the other-Sanji had appeared he and Zoro had been hightailing it out of the castle as the walls fell down around them. He'd felt a shove in the middle of his back launching him several feet forward, he'd just been about to shout at the Marimo for shoving him at a time like that but when he turned around there was no swordsman there but instead a fallen wall in his place. It had taken Sanji a few precious seconds to realise that Zoro hadn't vanished but was trapped under the wall.

He'd crouched down and squinted into the dark to make out Zoro pressed to the floor underneath the heavy wall. He was trying to support the wall with his back as his arms shook under the weight that threatened to crush him. Sanji had tried to lift the wall, putting all the strength from his legs into it, but it was just too heavy for him to lift alone. He'd crouched down again and shoved his shoulder under the wall, grunting and pushing with his legs to try and lift it.

He leant down to look at Zoro trapped beneath the wall, he wasn't supporting the wall as high as he'd been before, even with Sanji's help the wall was too heavy. There was no way that he'd be able to pull the wall off of Zoro, the only option was to get Zoro out from under the wall. He'd ordered Zoro to give him his hand, hoping to pull the swordsman out before both of their strengths gave way. A thoughtful look had crossed Zoro's face and he'd seen Zoro's hand move down towards his waist before his own voice had called out from behind him.

"Don't you FUCKING dare!"

And then his counterpart had been at his side lifting the wall, between the two of them they'd actually managed to lift it enough for Sanji to reach under and grasp Zoro's bruised and bleeding hands and pull the scraped, battered and bleeding Marimo out from under it before the wall fell into pieces.

Sanji hadn't even been concerned with the why or the how of the situation until the three of them had escaped outside of the wreckage of the castle and sat down with the rest of the crew. At the time he'd not given a damn who was helping him get that wall off of Zoro, only that someone was. It was as if he'd had tunnel vision and the only thing that mattered was getting Zoro out safely. But now Sanji felt like he had a thousand questions and no idea how to ask them.

Eventually Chopper had spoken, insisting that the crew and their other selves get back onto the Sunny for medical attention. Everyone had agreed and slowly the crew had got up and shambled back to the ship. Sanji had noticed his other self watching him with sharp eyes as he pulled Zoro to his feet, the swordsman didn't seem to have anything broken, not anything major anyway, but he seemed to be covered with a million scrapes and bruises all over.

"Come on you stupid ass, you were nearly a Marimo pancake back there." Sanji muttered as he pulled Zoro's arm over his own shoulder and helped the limping swordsman to walk. For a change Zoro didn't fight him and instead accepted the help, after all it gave him ample opportunity to annoy Sanji without getting kicked.

"I thought you liked pancakes." Zoro chuckled roughly as he tenderly put his foot on the floor.

"Broken?" Sanji enquired ignoring Zoro's stupid comment for the moment and instead looking down at Zoro's booted foot. He felt the swordsman shake his head and that was a good enough answer for him. Assured that the swordsman's foot wasn't about to snap off along the scars where he'd tried to cut them off before he resumed their verbal battle.

"Anyway, who in their right mind wants a Marimo pancake? That's an awful idea." Sanji added with a disgusted wrinkle of his nose.

"Well aren't you lucky I'm not one then?" Zoro shot back as they limped up to the ship.

Back on the ship everyone got their turn to be bandaged and scolded by Chopper for getting hurt. Luffy's head was bandaged but he was soon up and awake and bouncing around like usual, much to Chopper's dismay. As Zoro had predicted his ankle wasn't broken just incredibly badly bruised, it was only because of Zoro's soft spot for the little reindeer that he allowed himself to be bandaged up and fussed over at all.

Franky had only got a shallow gash on his cheek, thanks apparently to the efforts of his older self yanking him out of the way just in time, and he was assured by Chopper that it wouldn't scar. Robin and Chopper themselves were a little sooty but otherwise unharmed by the fire that they'd been trapped by as both Franky's managed to rescue them in time. The only two Straw-hats that were entirely unharmed were Nami and Usopp who had managed to flee the building together at a quite incredible speed.

They were sat around the table in the galley with Sanji having only just set down some snacks when Zoro had blurted out that damn question.

"What would have happened if the three of you hadn't turned up?" Zoro asked as a dead silence fell on the table. The other-Franky eventually laughed nervously.

"You always did ask the worst questions Zoro." He smiled weakly.

"He has a point though, you really saved us there." Nami pointed out as she eyed the other-Franky suspiciously. The older Franky sighed and started to explain, his eyes staring into the distance at a past or future that could have been.

"If we'd not been there, you'd have lived our lives, what happened to us would have happened to you. Which is why we showed up, we couldn't let that happen if we could stop it." He explained with a sigh.

"So… what did happen?" Nami prompted, not satisfied with the other-Franky's evasive answer.

"When the building started collapsing and the fire started, the one that trapped Robin and Chopper, I'd seen them and was trying to rescue them myself. That's when that window came down and caught me, that's how I got this." The other-Franky explained pointing at the long scar running from his cheek and into his hair.

"It hit me pretty hard and knocked me out for… I don't know, maybe five minutes? I'm not sure how long. When I came to I tried to get back to Robin and Chopper but… well, I was too late." He explained, staring down coldly at his clenched fists.

Silence rang around the table as the weight of that idea settled in. Chopper put his tiny hoof on the other-Franky's arm.

"If… if it was a fire… most people in fires die from the smoke not the fire, it's not really painful." The little reindeer said quietly. Franky smiled wryly at that.

"So I've been told, but it doesn't make it much better Chopper, the two of you still died then." He sighed. The other-Usopp looked sadly at the other-Franky and continued along with his story, clearly sensing that Franky had reached his limit with talking about their painful past.

"With Luffy, the hit to the head didn't kill him obviously. But… it took the rest of us so long to escape and regroup outside the castle that by the time we realised that no one had seen Luffy since the fight it was too late. Apparently a hit to the head like that doesn't kill someone made of rubber, and you can't be crushed to death either, but even Luffy needs to breathe and that's kinda hard when you've got a whole castle pressed down on your chest. We'd been so busy trying to rescue Sanji that we thought Luffy had got out on his own, or that he'd be fine. I mean… Luffy was always fine, no matter what. We didn't even think that it was possible that…" The other-Usopp trailed off.

Sanji stared at Luffy as if he expected him to vanish before his eyes, he'd never really seriously considered that something like a building falling down could kill Luffy. Sure, he'd worried about the Marines or some super strong pirate or warlord being the death of Luffy, or even the boy's own stupid nature – like forgetting that he couldn't swim, but everything else in comparison just seemed harmless. After all this was LUFFY for goodness sake. Even when he and Zoro had been running out of the collapsing castle he'd worried about everyone but Luffy, after all the kid was made of rubber, it's hard to think of anything more indestructible. The rest of what the other-Usopp hadn't even sunk in until Zoro spoke.

"What do you mean rescuing Sanji?" Zoro said with a frown.

"What do you think he means, moron? I got crushed under the same wall that killed you." The other-Sanji said coldly as he spoke for the first time. Zoro's eyes widened at that, as did Sanji's.

"But-" Zoro started.

"But nothing! What? You thought that shoving me out of the way of that stupid wall meant I'd be okay even if you weren't? You're so stupid! Why didn't you shout or get us both out of the way rather than just shoving me? Did you really think that I'd just leave you there asshole?" the other-Sanji exploded furiously standing up and slamming his fists into the table hard enough to make the cutlery jump. Both the other-Franky and the other-Sanji winced at this, it was clearly a reaction that they'd seen before. But the straw-hats were all surprised at Sanji's fury, Nami wasn't sure that she could recall Sanji ever looking that furious before, even when someone had attacked the women on the crew.

"Sanji…" The other-Usopp said softly with a sad look on his face as he tried to lay a comforting hand on the other-Sanji's arm.

"No, Usopp! I've been waiting ten years to kick this stupid marimo's ass over this and I'm gonna do it!" the other-Sanji hissed, batting the older Usopp away and returning his kilowatt glare back on to Zoro.

"And whilst I'm on the subject of me kicking your ass for being stupid, what the hell was I supposed to do with this, you shitty swordsman?" the other-Sanji snapped as he pulled his long coat aside and tore something from his belt. As he slammed it down onto the table in front of Zoro it became apparent to everyone there that it was Zoro's precious white sword Wadou, but at the same time, it wasn't. The whole sword was scuffed up and fraying at the hilt, it didn't exactly look cared for. The hilt of the sword in particular was covered in the dark stain that hinted a large volume of blood soaked into it a long time past and its scabbard was similarly bloodied and scratched up.

"I asked for you to give me your hand, not your stupid sword. And don't you dare pretend that that wasn't what you were just about to do right when I showed up." He added darkly.

Sanji stared at Zoro then, he was still fearlessly holding the gaze of Sanji's other-self and his fierce accusations. The stupid swordsman wasn't denying the other-Sanji's accusations in the slightest, in fact he looked quite cool and collected. Sanji's mind scrabbled back to the memory of just before his other-self had turned up, had Zoro been going for his swords? Surely not? Zoro stared briefly at the hilt of the battered white sword on the table before looking coolly back up into the maddened Sanji's face. Sanji's eyes widened, why wasn't Zoro denying it?

"Say something, idiot!" Sanji finally shouted, kicking the chair of his nakama. Zoro glared at Sanji for that.

"I didn't want her to get crushed." Zoro shrugged as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Both Sanji's twitched at that. Zoro had been about to be crushed by a massive wall and all he'd been thinking about what his stupid sword?

"THAT'S THE DUMBEST THING I'VE EVER HEARD!" Sanji snapped as rage boiled hotly under his skin.

"Didn't you think that if you'd given me your hand that both you _and_ your stupid sword could have gotten out just fine?" the other-Sanji hissed furiously.

Zoro shrugged at that, apparently not.

"Why did they have the rescue you though? You look fine to me." Zoro pointed out once again completely ignoring both Sanji's rage and coming back to a previous point.

"Oh yeah? Well, look again!" The other-Sanji shot back furiously.

Sanji thought that he saw the other-Franky wince at that and mutter 'oh boy' under his breath before the other-Sanji did what he did.

Other-Sanji pulled his trench-coat off in one smooth movement. Underneath he had on a white tank top revealing his bare shoulders. It was his shoulder specifically that had Sanji's eyes glued to his counterpart. The skin there was gnarled around his shoulder and the top of his arm, said arm was made of dull grey steel. His shoulder where it should have been round and pale with smooth skin was instead a complex interface of a metal ball with wires and cables wrapping around the joint and down his metal arm on one side and plunging into pale damaged skin on the other. His metal arm itself was quite sparse and inhuman looking. The metal bone of the arm itself was thick and strong looking, surrounded by what apparently was the metal counterparts for muscles and tendons, but there was no case around them, there was no skin of any kind.

As the other-Sanji pulled his black glove off a gleaming skeletal metal hand was revealed. It looked nothing like what Franky's hand looked like with his fake skin glove removed, which simply looked like a hand cast in metal. No, the other-Sanji's hand was bones and tendons made in metal, there was no consideration to making any part of his hand or arm look natural or passing for normal the way Franky could. It was kind of horrifying in a way, like something out of a nightmare.

"Wh-what happened?" Zoro asked, his skin pale and eyes wide from the shock as he stared at the nightmare hand.

"What do you think happened? I was trying to drag your stupid ass out from under that wall when neither of us could hold it any more and it crushed us both. It killed you and nearly killed me too, crushed my entire arm. But hey, maybe I should thank you for throwing me your stupid sword, it's the only way that they managed to get me out." The other-Sanji said jerking his metallic thumb to the side in the direction of the other-Franky and the other-Usopp.

"Unfortunately for me Franky wasn't as good at using it as you were. It wasn't exactly one clean cut to get me out from under that wall." The other-Sanji growled. He squeezed his eyes shut and let out a stressed breath, he rubbed his eyes with his human hand before rummaging in his trouser pocket and pulled out a cigarette and his lighter.

"Sanji, I thought you quit." The other-Usopp blinked looking at the other-Sanji in surprise.

"Yeah, well. Seeing Zoro again is enough to make anyone take up smoking again." The other-Sanji muttered lighting up and stalking out of the galley in silence.

Sanji and Zoro sat side by side in stunned silence, both now staring horrified at the bloodied not-so-white sword before them trying not to imagine how painful it'd be to have someone who had never wielded a sword before in their life trying to chop your arm off with it. Nami eventually broke the silence that had fallen upon the table since the other-Sanji's sudden departure.

"I… I hate to ask, but… what happened to me?" Nami asked quietly. The other-Usopp smiled at this feeling pleased to get onto a happier topic.

"You got out fine Nami, just like today. We escaped together. You're back on the ship, Franky's tech could only get us back into the past if you steered us to a specific place with a specific kind of storm and kept us there, and you're the only one that could do that." The other-Usopp answered.

Zoro sat on the deck of the ship, his legs crossed as he tried to meditate. It was so far a rather fruitless activity, every time he was close to getting his mind to go blank the horrifying image of the other-Sanji's skeletal metal arm flashed in his mind. And if it wasn't that image it was his imagination flashing up pictures of Sanji screaming, trapped under the wall as Franky clumsily tried to free him with his sword.

He growled and stood up unhappily. Clearly this wasn't going to go away. He glanced up at the walkway outside of the kitchen and spotted the other-Franky sitting there watching him with a slightly sad expression on his face. Zoro sighed and walked over there.

"Trouble relaxing?" the other-Franky asked tilting his head slightly in Zoro's direction as the swordsman sat down next to him. Zoro grunted noncommittally and shrugged. The other-Franky snorted at that.

"It really is good to see you again Zoro, it was awful losing you." The other-Franky said giving Zoro a slow look. Zoro considered that for a moment before speaking.

"Tell me about Sanji." He said folding his arms and leaning back against the outside wall of the galley. The other-Franky sighed and nodded.

"When I got hit by the sea train, I didn't lose any parts of me. Admittedly lots of me now has been so modified that there's almost nothing original left, my hands for example. But I didn't lose anything completely, the nerves in my hands are the same ones that I was born with, you need to understand that. I'm a modified human, not something entirely new." The other-Franky explained as he watched Zoro carefully.

"But Sanji was different." Zoro ventured.

"Yes. I got outside of the castle to find only Nami and Usopp there, I explained about Robin and Chopper and asked if either of them had seen you two. We had to track him down from his screams Zoro, by that point more of the building had collapsed and the rest of him was pretty beaten up too." The other-Franky said sadly.

"He kept screaming your name and cursing you for being so stupid, it was a while until we realised that he meant that you were under that wall, that all of the blood oozing out from under those bricks wasn't his. We couldn't lift the wall off of him, by that point several others had fallen on top of the wall that crushed you and the rest of the building was still falling down every so often. There was this tower that was leaning over where Sanji was, if we hadn't gotten him out when we had, he'd have been crushed completely." The other-Franky explained. Zoro felt an involuntary shiver run up his spine at the thought, he could practically see Sanji pinned down and screaming.

"I don't think I'm ever going to forget having to cut his arm off, it's not exactly quick trying to remove a bone from a joint like that. And even when we got him out of the castle we didn't have a doctor anymore, I was the only one that had any experience with this sort of thing and even I was lost. It's a miracle he didn't bleed to death." The blue-haired man said distantly as he stared at the ocean. Zoro decided to ask the question that had been weighing on his mind.

"So… why does his arm look like that rather than like yours?" he asked curiously.

"Ah, well… I chose a skeletal design at first simply because it was easier to work with. Usopp and I made it together whilst Sanji healed somewhat. I was planning on fleshing it out and making it look more… normal after I'd confirmed that he could use it." The other-Franky explained.

"But when the time came, when he could use his new arm properly he refused anything to change the way it looked. He said it didn't matter anymore. You know he's not cooked once since the day you died? He refuses to." The other-Franky said looking sidelong at Zoro. Zoro's eyes widened at that, he couldn't imagine Sanji giving up cooking, it was like giving up breathing.

"Why?" He breathed shocked.

"I don't know. He said that there was no point anymore, he says that about almost everything though. He stopped smoking, stopped cooking, he barely talks and even then he only ever talks to me, Usopp or Nami. I think he spoke more today that he has in the last month. Usopp said once that he thought the both of you died that day, but Sanji just had the misfortune to still be walking around. I can't say that he's wrong." The older man sighed wearily.

Zoro stared dumbstruck at the other-Franky, he wasn't sure that he could wrap his mind around that sort of idea. A weak thought fizzled hopefully in his brain.

"What… what about All-Blue?" he breathed almost too scared to hear the answer. The other-Franky laughed bitterly at that.

"What do you think? He gave up on that the day you died, he never said why. Usopp tried to get him to say once, he said that Sanji couldn't just give up on his dream because of what had happened, that you wouldn't have wanted him to. Sanji went nuts at that, kicked poor Usopp clean through the wall. He said…" The other-Franky trailed off as he looked at Zoro. He sighed and shook his head.

"You know, I shouldn't be telling you this. It's not my place to say." He sighed standing up wearily.

"Tell me! Why on earth would he just give up on All-Blue like that? He's been chasing it his entire life!" Zoro shouted leaping up as well. The other-Franky's scarred face looked at him pityingly.

"He said… he said that there was no point going to All-Blue if you weren't going to be there." The other-Franky said sadly before walking away, leaving a dumbstruck Zoro standing outside the galley.

Sanji stood in the kitchen stirring the milk in the pot, he'd been thinking non-stop about everything that had happened that day. Luffy himself had been considerably quiet during the whole event, he'd thanked their counterparts for their help and then excused himself to go and sit outside on the figurehead of the ship on his own. If he hadn't known Luffy so well then he might have thought that it was the brush with death that had spooked their captain, but Sanji supposed that he probably felt guilty, he knew that Luffy was the kind of person that would feel responsible for his crew dying even though it was clearly not his fault. Sanji certainly didn't feel like what had happened today was Luffy's fault, it was just something that had happened and apparently it could have been an awful lot worse. He looked down at his hand and flexed his fingers as if to check that they were still there.

Behind him the door opened and out of the corner of his eye he saw Zoro come into the galley and lean against a work surface to the side. Zoro watched him for a while before Sanji finally cracked.

"What?" He snapped looking at the slightly startled swordsman.

"Nothing." Zoro blinked relaxing again into his usual apathetic slouch. Sanji rolled his eyes.

"You're an idiot." Sanji sighed turning back to his milk and stirring it some more. He'd thought that perhaps hot coco might soothe his frazzled nerves, today had certainly been a stressful day. Something his other self said came back to him.

"Why were you going to throw your sword to me rather than give me your hand?" He asked looking sidelong at Zoro.

"Like I said, I didn't want it getting crushed. I didn't really think about it." Zoro shrugged nonchalantly and watched Sanji out of the corner of his eye.

"Bullshit. I saw that look on your face, you were thinking about it." Sanji retorted remembering that thoughtful look that had crossed Zoro's face when he'd asked Zoro to grab his hand.

"Look? What look?" the swordsman blinked looking at Sanji.

"You know, that look that you get when you think. It's pretty rare but I've seen it before. The look on your face of your brain just straining to form human thoughts above training, booze and swords." Sanji said with a completely straight face, because after all there were few things more enjoyable than winding Zoro up.

"Shut your stupid face love-cook." Zoro retorted, trying to suppress the small smile tugging at his lips. Sanji recognised this for the evasive reply that it was.

"So what were you thinking then?" Sanji asked again, Zoro's smile disappeared and he huffed and stared down at his black boots. After a while he answered.

"I knew that the two of us couldn't hold that wall up and get me out as well. The last thing I wanted was your dumb ass crawling under trying to get me out and us both being crushed to death along with my swords. I figured that saving two outta three wasn't bad." Zoro replied slowly.

Sanji's hand stilled and he watched the milk bubble in the pan, after a few seconds he stirred it again, not wanting it to burn.

"It didn't work though did it? Or at least… it wouldn't have." He pointed out eventually.

"Yeah, I can't stop thinking about that. You lost your whole arm because of me." Zoro murmured quietly, staring at Sanji's arm as if to confirm that it was still flesh and blood.

"Hey, I'm okay. I've still got both my arms and you're still alive. And you didn't make that stupid wall fall on you, you didn't do anything." Sanji pointed out, giving Zoro a half-hearted kick to the side.

The familiar shink-click-fwoosh sound of Sanji's lighter sounded from behind them where the door was and the two of them looked over to see the other-Sanji standing there slowly inhaling the smoke through his cigarette. He was still without his coat and the alien look of his metal arm frankly unnerved both Sanji and Zoro. He finally straightened his back and blew out a long stream of smoke through his lips.

"God you two are really as dumb as I remember." He finally said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sanji said glaring at this cyborg other self.

"It means what just what I said, the two of you are dumb as rocks." Other-Sanji said. He slowly walked over to the kitchen section of the galley and eased himself up until he was sitting on the counter opposite Zoro and Sanji.

"How much did it hurt?" Sanji asked taking the milk off of the burner and mixing coco into it and stirring. He set it on the side and turned to look at his counterpart.

"A lot, but not much in comparison to having the people you love die." Other-Sanji said giving Sanji a cold stare.

Sanji winced at this, he supposed that having his nakama die would be excruciating, not to mention watching Zoro die right in front of his very eyes. And it wasn't as if it was a pleasant death either, being crushed to death wasn't exactly a good way to go.

"Why'd you give up on All-Blue, and why did you stop cooking?" Zoro prompted as he stared harshly at the other-Sanji.

"What?" Sanji spluttered wide eyed as he spun to stare at his stoic counterpart.

The other-Sanji raised a curled eyebrow before blowing out a long stream of smoke from his nose, his skeletal hand flicked the end of his cigarette to get the ash off.

"Fucking Franky as his big mouth." The other-Sanji finally said before kicking Zoro in the side.

"Out." He ordered.

"I'm staying right here." Zoro said stubbornly and glared back at the other-Sanji.

"Not if you want me to answer your stupid question. He won't listen to me if you're here. Out." The other-Sanji retorted kicking at Zoro again.

Zoro gave Sanji a questioning look, Sanji sighed and nodded. Apparently satisfied Zoro straightened up and after shooting a cold look at the other-Sanji he left, shutting the galley door behind him.

Sanji turned the burner off carefully before turning to look at his counterpart and trying not to stare at the creepy metal arm or the gnarled skin on his shoulder.

"So spill. I can't think of a reason why I would ever give up on All-Blue, much less on cooking." He said flatly. The other-Sanji rolled his eyes and then spoke as if explaining something to an especially stupid child.

"What," he said, "is the purpose of cooking?"

"So that people don't go hungry, to make people happy and to- ow!" Sanji yelped as his other self kicked him in the stomach.

"Wrong. Zeff would kick your ass. That is the purpose of food, moron. I was asking about cooking." The other-Sanji said sternly. Sanji blinked at his other self and thought about his answer.

"Cooking is… is making food with love. Putting your soul into your work." He answered confidently.

"Correct, now. What is the purpose of finding All-Blue?" his other-self questioned, again as if talking to a stupid kid.

"To prove that it does exist, that Zeff isn't a crazy old man. Well, he is but, that he wasn't nuts to chase after something like All-Blue. Because it's every real cook's dream." Sanji answered defiantly. His other-self stubbed out his cigarette on Sanji's previously pristine work surface and blew a plume of smoke into Sanji's face, Sanji wrinkled his nose, no wonder that pissed Zoro off.

"Don't make me kick you again." He threatened.

"What are you going to _do_ when you get there?" he said rephrasing his question.

"Cook of course. What else?" Sanji blinked as if the answer was too obvious.

"Finally." The other-Sanji said rolling his eyes.

"Now, if the purpose of All-Blue is to cook there, and the purpose of cooking is putting love into food for people that you care about, then what happens if there's suddenly nothing worth loving in the world?" The other-Sanji questioned.

"What are you talking about? There's always something worth- aaah!" Sanji yelped dodging a kick from his counterpart.

"I didn't ask your fucking _opinion_ on the matter, I asked you a question. What if there's nothing worth loving in the world?" The other-Sanji snarled.

"Then there's no point in…" Sanji trailed off suddenly as the idea swirled in his brain.

"Then… then there's no point in cooking anymore." He said in a hollow voice as the idea crystallised in his mind. He shook his head.

"But that's wrong. There's always something worth loving in the world, the world is full of- STOP THAT!" Sanji snapped as his other-self swung another kick at him.

"No, you stop it! Do you actually have to lose the only thing in this world worth loving before you _realise_ what you have right here? Is not coming _this_ close to losing it enough?" His other self snapped angrily, jabbing Sanji in the chest with a sharp metal finger.

"I don't-" Sanji started but was cut off by his other-self.

"Don't you dare pretend that you don't know, and don't you dare deny it." The other-Sanji said threateningly. A hollowness filled the other-Sanji's eyes and he leaned back against the countertop away from Sanji.

"I've… you've always loved him. You can feel it in your bones, no one else can get under my skin… our skin like he does. You've spent the last god knows how long fighting with him, and stupid me, I only realise exactly what I've got just as it's taken from me." His other-self said weakly.

"I don't know-" Sanji said shaking his head and frowning, but again his other-self cut him off.

"Shut up. Remember how you felt, right before I showed up, remember how you felt when you looked at his face when he was trapped under that wall and you knew deep down that you weren't going to be able to get him out. When you knew that this was going to be the last image that you had of him before that wall fell and crushed him. Remember!" The other-Sanji snapped.

"I know what you felt, I know what I felt. It's been burned into my mind for the last decade, that image of him is the only thing I see when I shut my eyes." His counterpart said in an empty voice.

Sanji shut his eyes and tried to remember. He remembered fear coursing through his veins as he looked at Zoro, trapped in the dark. He remembered being so scared of losing… losing Zoro he supposed. He remembered stretching his arm out as far as it would stretch to try to reach Zoro. He remembered the stinging pain in his chest and the fear of losing something not yet found. But then it had all been different, the wall had lifted and he'd wrapped his hands around Zoro's hot dirt-covered hands and pulling him to safety. Could he imagine what it would have been like if that wall had slipped and Zoro's life had been snuffed out like a pinched wick of a candle? He tried to imagine knowing that Zoro would never become the world's greatest swordsman, knowing that Zoro would never again laugh or make stupid comments or come in his kitchen after working out all morning and stinking up the place. Something in his chest hurt, hurt more than anything he'd ever felt.

He opened his eyes to see his counterpart staring in a vaguely disinterested manner at his metal fingertips which were disappearing away into nothingness.

"Hm. Franky said that this might happen." He said vaguely.

"What's happening?" Sanji cried feeling startled at seeing his other-self vanishing slowly before his eyes.

"That future… the one that I came from… it doesn't exist anymore. I'm disappearing." He murmured as his legs started to become invisible past the knees.

"I gave you a second chance, one that I never had. Don't you dare waste it. Remember, it's my future that you're making." His other self said, and just before he disappeared completely Sanji was sure that he saw a smile on his counterpart's lips for the first time.

Zoro burst into the room loudly, making Sanji jump.

"Is he…?" Zoro asked looking wildly around the room.

"Gone? Yeah, he just… vanished." Sanji nodded.

"The other two just… faded away. What happened?" Zoro asked wide eyed and curious.

"He said that his future didn't exist anymore. So… I guess he didn't either. We're not going to become them." Sanji answered thoughtfully. Sanji thought he saw the swordsman breathe a sign of relief out of the corner of his eye but he wasn't sure if he imagined it or not.

"So you're not going to give up on All-Blue then?" Zoro commented in what Sanji guessed was an attempt at nonchalance.

"Not on your life." Sanji answered flatly.

"Good. Being a quitter doesn't suit you." Zoro smirked. Sanji thought he felt something flutter in his chest briefly.

_Finding something not yet found…_

"Get your stupid ass out of my kitchen, I've got cooking to do." Sanji snapped, giving Zoro a shove with his foot. This time he did catch the grin on Zoro's face just as he turned to leave.

Sanji turned back to his cooker top. Now… what to cook?


End file.
